What does the title mean? That, I can’t tell you. It’s an excellent power metal album, however. Time of the Oath was 25% better than Master of the Rings; Better than Raw is 25% greater again. Everything locks into place here. Music, tone, style, production, performance. It’s distinct from anything Helloween made before, yet feels like a summation and endpoint of their 90s style: great songs, performed with panache and energy. Helloween wasn’t just out of “comeback hell” in 1998, they producing melodic power metal that compared decently against their classic 80s run (Walls of Jericho plus Keeper of the Seven Keys I and II).
All of the musicians more than pull their weight, but one of them steals the show. Uli Kusch’s drumming is so damned good here—flashy and technical, yet in-the-pocket and lively. Listen to the way he anchors the start of “Push”—tight triplets on the kicks, with sharp, precise hats punching Markus Grosskopf’s bubbling bass into place like steel tentpegs—or the unyielding chaos of “Midnight Sun”—where flurries of wild snare and tom fills swoop and overtake each other like crazed birds. He adds such interesting skeletons to fairly average midpaced fair like “Hey Lord!” that they seem absolutely compelling.
This might be the most balanced Helloween album from a songwriting perspective. Four songs by Uli, four by Weikath, four by Deris. This is the only 90s Helloween album to have absolutely no songs credited to lead guitarist Roland Grapow, but I happen to know he “ghosted” a fair bit on Uli’s songs. The staccato guitar riff in “Revelation” was written by him, for example.
“Push” is fast. “Falling Higher” is even faster. Tommy Hansen’s production is dated, archaic and rough, with bits of dust seeming to cling to the cracks in every note. I think this was the last time they ever worked with Hansen, and represents another breaking point with their classic power metal style. Subsequent albums had a more modern (sometimes too modern) sound.
There are some recondite progressive rock touches in the album’s second half, which, unlike Chameleon, are well done and don’t seem too distinct from the band’s core style. “Time” and “A Handful of Pain”.
The worst song is probably Weikath’s “Lavdate Dominum”, which listens like a goofy punk rock song, or a heavy metal cover of some Christmas carol. I don’t know what the idea was here. He also gets the album closer, “Midnight Sun”, which is really good; extremely lengthy and technical while also fraught with emotional agitation. One of Deris’s great vocal tracks is on this song.
There are two great songs, that are pretty much in the top 10 greatest Helloween tracks every time I make a list. The first is Uli Kusch’s “Revelation”, an amazing, warp-speed epic that seems to be a jaded postmodern take on the Bible. Astonishing shifts in feel and tempo, solo after solo, weird digressions into funk rock and thrash, the album’s greatest chorus…Worlds form, collide, and break apart inside this song.
The second is a complete surprise. “I Can” is one of the hardest sellouts Helloween ever sold, literally being an alternative rock song that sounds like New Order’s Get Ready more than anything, But it’s extremely well-written, compact, and catchy. I’m glad they didn’t go further into the territory explored here, but man, I’m glad they planted a flag at least this far.
1998-2000 was the era where power metal became incredibly competitive: bands like Gamma Ray and Stratovarius were in the middle of career-defining hot streaks, newcomers like Freedom Call even America was finally becoming relevant again thanks to Virgin Steele and Kamelot. Better than Raw ranks alongside the best of that period.
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